Small towns in Weld County living with realities of oil, gas activity

Casey Angell, left, and Eli Haberman, right, place one of the railroad ties as Felipe Valadez fine tunes it's location earlier this month in Eaton as construction on a new loading facility in Eaton. The facility will allow a variety of oil commodities to loaded and unloaded from trains.

Manuel Rodriguez checks the placement of one railroad tie as work continues on the loading facility in Eaton. Crews have been working to lay the $6 million worth of rail lines in Eaton in preparation for the new facility.

Noble Energy set up shop in a former residential home in the middle of Grover on the north edge of Weld County, where much of the oil field traffic has converged with the drilling boom. The small town of 150 people hasn't seen a lot of business or population growth in town, but the local grocery store just had its best March in 15 years due to increased business from the oil and gas industry.

A small trailer yard in Grover has picked up as of late, with fifth-wheels and semi tractors parked in the middle of town. Weld's small towns have grown with the added oil field traffic, but they've yet to see an increase in housing.

Steve Wolff, owner of the Grover Market Basket for the last 15 years, recently added a line of FR clothing to his grocery to meet the needs of his growing oil field clientele. He just has his best March on record and missed April's best by $110.

Halliburton, in Fort Lupton for 40 years, sprang up with a $42 million expansion in town in recent years, helping put this small Weld County town on the map. Town officials attribute massive growth in several areas to the company.

Workers top off an expanded Halliburton facility last year off of Weld County roads 8 and 27 in south Fort Lupton. City officials credit Halliburton for kick-starting a massive business growth spurt in their town.

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Five years ago, the city of Fort Lupton was on the verge of losing its biggest employer. Halliburton was contemplating moving to the north end of Weld County, where the oil-field traffic was increasingly headed.

City officials quickly intervened and worked a deal to provide the company with city water and sewer to build a new $42 million facility on the south end of town. Halliburton moved from a 125-man operation to more than 1,200 employees in this small town at the southern edge of Weld County.

That one move transformed the town, which last year annexed 1.2 miles of land into its borders, and is slated to add more this year with 15 pending annexations.

“Overall, in the last three to four years, we’ve added over 2,000 jobs in the community and business has been coming in like crazy,” said City Administrator Claud Hanes. “Oil and gas has been very positive for us, and we’ve welcomed them, as opposed to some other communities who told them to go away.”

Smack dab in the Wattenberg Field, Fort Lupton is an example of what could be for many small towns throughout this county that sprawls more than 4,000 square miles.

Small towns throughout Weld are reaping the benefits of boosted business and added traffic, but they’re also living with the realities that come with it.

BUSINESS

While Fort Lupton continues to attract new businesses to town — roughly 10-12 since the boom began — other small towns are seeing smaller numbers, while existing businesses feel the rush that comes with steady commerce.

Grover storekeep Steve Wolff is all smiles with the regular foot traffic and lunch orders he sees at the Grover Market Basket. He just added a line of flame resistant clothing in a corner of his store, which offers everything from weed killer and crescent rolls to coolers and candy. Soon, he’ll offer Red Wing boots as well.

“This last March was our best March ever, and we missed our best April by $110,” Wolff said of the business he’s owned for 15 years on the main drag in town. “When we first got here, it was a lot quieter and slower. There were 150 people and not all of them shopped here. Now, I get lots of people who live here and shop here.”

A little further south of Grover, along Colo. 14, New Raymer, another speck on a road map, is seeing a huge boost to business for Pawnee Station restaurant, the only place to eat for miles between Nebraska and Ault to the west.

Owner Cyle Lambert spent the last year refurbishing the small restaurant that’s been in his family for years. He and his wife Bryce bought at the right time, as the oil field traffic to their east picked up. Regularly, they’re shipping out 20 and 30 hamburgers at a time to feed the hungry crews at lunch and often deal with lines out the door for sit-down service.

The industry has brought new business to a host of towns along U.S. 85, including Nunn, Ault and Eaton.

Eaton, especially, is getting quite a boost, with additional business and some much-needed road repair as the town’s coffers see additional revenue from sales taxes.

A new transloading facility is being built on a 43-acre parcel on the east side of the highway at the old sugar factory. Crews are building $6 million worth of rail now. The transloading facility, being built by Omaha Track Material out of Omaha, Neb., is planned to be a rail-served industrial park.

“They hauled in 2,800 semi loads of structural material,” Town Manager Gary Carsten said of the project, which is on town-owned land. “It’s evolving now, they’ve got potential customers both in agriculture and oil and gas.”

The facility at build-out could bring up to 40 new jobs to town.

Developer Scott Renfroe’s Markets at Maplewood, which was built in 2004 on the west side of U.S. 85, finally filled up in the last few months, with the addition of Camacho’s Mexican Restaurant and ProActive Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine. The shiny new storefronts they took had been vacant for almost the last decade.

Renfroe and business partners also will be adding a $4 million hotel project along the highway south of the Eaton Dollar Store. The plan is to build a 43-room Cobblestone Inn and Suites, a relatively new chain of hotels that specifically picks small towns in which to locate its hotels. The brand originates in the Midwest and it has been expanding aggressively.

Eaton’s business growth has been steady in the last few years, evidenced by the construction today along U.S. 85 at the U Fill It station, in which owners are building a larger structure.

Further south on the highway, Platteville’s businesses also are doing well. New business is coming to town all the time. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is the lead anchor in the Platteville Energy Park, and has expanded its building three times before even finishing its first phase. The park has room for about five more businesses, and two are already making plans to move in.

The parking lot at the convenience store at Colo. 66 and U.S. 85 on the south end of Platteville is consistently packed with oilfield traffic, as it lies in the heart of the Wattenberg Field. Owners say that store does 50 percent more business than five other stores under the same ownership. Soon, new owners will be revamping the store and adding a café, which they will call The Patch Grill.

“There’s a lot of dirt being kicked around,” said Town Manager Troy Renken of the new business coming in. “Local businesses are doing better than they have for some time. Eating establishments are very active with the increase in the employment base. I’ve seen sales tax in general across the board increase, as well as property tax.”

Added Hanes in Fort Lupton: “It’s been stagnant for decades,” he said of the local business climate. “Retailers like to see new people in their stores shopping. It helps everything. It’s a quandary whether to get retail or rooftop. They go together.”

HOUSING

One of the big issues with smaller towns is the lack of available housing. Fort Lupton officials are pushing hard, but haven’t found developers yet ready to build in this market in which values have gone up 63 percent, and where homes are snapped up within hours of being on the market.

“If we could get the housing to go, we’d be growing population like crazy,” Hanes said. “We’ve had a lot of builders talking to us about housing. If that happens, we’ll be at 15-20 percent annual growth.”

Hanes figures the town could more than double in population by 2025.

Rumors have been flying about new housing developments in Nunn or Ault, but town clerks say they’re just that. Getting services to new residential lots are a bit out of most developers’ price ranges at present.

“I do think the oil and gas industry would like more housing, but we can’t provide it here,” said Cathy Payne, clerk of the town of Nunn. She said developers have to secure a source of water first before building new housing.

“It kinda makes it a nightmare for someone who wants to develop.”

It helps that not only Eaton will be getting a hotel, but Kersey and Fort Lupton have new hotels in the works.

Platteville has an entire residential subdivision ready to go, and Renken said a hotel is a possibility.

“Multifamily, a hotel, a subdivision — all three have been talked about,” Renken said.

He said lots for 50 homes in an existing subdivision are on the books, but they’ve not yet been developed. The town also has a 600-acre development west of town that’s been planned for 1,400 homes for years, but there’s been no movement yet.

Not a lot of residents have moved to Grover, as there really is no available housing or lots, but some have made camp in a local trailer yard, which has become home to some fifth-wheels and semi-trailers, right alongside mobile homes.

Locals aren’t so thrilled about this effect of the oil and gas industry.

“We haven’t seen the growth in this town like they did in the Williston in North Dakota,” Wolff of the Grover Market said. “For me, it’s good. It’s still quiet and you can still see all the stars at night.”

TRAFFIC

It didn’t take Beth Bashor long to put her foot down.

Dealing with drilling through her and her husband’s property — Bashor Ranch in Grover — was getting ridiculous as trucks sped through the road, just feet from her front door. It was last year, and the sprite, 4-foot-10ish woman had enough.

“I stood out there in the middle of the road with my pitch fork,” said Bashor, who’s lived on her horse and cattle ranch with her husband for much of their 52-year marriage. “I didn’t give him a chance. He had to stop. I said, ‘You slow down!’ And I turned away. I think he got my point.”

But then she loosened up. The next time she stopped a truck driver in the middle of the road, she promptly handed him an ice cream bar.

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, she figured.

Daily, she and other locals co-exist with a bustling oil traffic, which hauls water from local wells to eastern Weld County drilling sites. County road graders spent a recent day through Grover grading roads that had been beaten up with recent snows and rain combined with truck traffic.

Grover resident Dean Smock was locked into his home east of town recently when a truck jack-knifed near his property.

“Six hours later they got him out,” Smock said of the truck. “I couldn’t go to work. I couldn’t get out.”

Town officials along the oil corridors are practically begging the state Department of Transportation and Weld County for a little help. Weld County officials have been reticent to pave many new roads for fear of longtime maintenance, townspeople say.

“U.S. 85 is really catching it right now,” said Carsten of the chewed up drag through Eaton. “We just put a lot of money into rebuilding Collins Avenue, which is the main east-west road. That’s helped a lot, so we’re back into regular maintenance on residential streets. The streets are still the main thing that concerns me. Most cities and towns in Colorado will tell you same thing.”

School buses in Grover also are feeling the wear and tear, as windows are cracked and parts come loose.

“The downside is the number of trucks that tear up the roads,” said Pawnee Schools Superintendent Bret Robinson. “Even if they graded them three times a day, they couldn’t keep it straight. Most of last year, I chose to go all the away around town (on paved streets) instead of the shortcuts (which are gravel). That’s 20 extra miles.”

Fort Lupton officials have built a road to divert oil field traffic from town as much as possible. “We spent $1.3 million on improved roads and on exterior road for Halliburton for the truck traffic that keeps them out of the city limits totally,” Hanes said.

But like many small towns, a state highway runs right through it. “Trucks are gonna drive through,” Hanes said.

FRUSTRATION

While the traffic is good for his business, Lambert in New Raymer, also the local fire chief and an advocate for his town, is getting frustrated.

Traffic is rumbling through town too fast, and he’s worried someone’s going to die before the state Department of Transportation reduces speeds through town. He said he rarely sees Weld County Sheriff’s Office deputies to help patrol existing speeds or reckless driving.

“Any time you deal with growth and anything like that, you’ll deal with the ugly side,” Lambert said. “I’m not complaining, because I’m a business owner as well, but I wear two hats. I’ve got to keep my people safe. … I don’t want them not coming through town, so they’ve got me between a rock and a hard spot.

He added, “It’s here, and it’s going to stay it sounds like. It would be nice to see some community service projects.”

Lambert said truckers parked their semitrailers at the local fairgrounds during a real muddy time and ruined the grounds. The fairgrounds are home to the annual Northeast Weld County Fair and Rodeo.

“Our poor little park here in town, it’s old, and the trees died, and the gazebo is in bad shape,” Lambert said. “There’s old playground equipment from the school. That would be a neat community service project for someone to come in with say, manpower, a little bit of funds, and help rebuild the park.”

Lambert said he’s talked with probably 25 representatives of the industry over the years, all asking what they could do for the town, and he’s seen nothing.

“There’s a lot of money coming out of our area, and we’re essentially not seeing anything back,” Lambert said.

Robinson of Pawnee Schools, however, said he’s been on the receiving end of oil and gas revenues, in that companies will call him out of the blue to donate. Grassland Water Solutions, as an example, recently donated more than $1,600 to help the tiny school district send students to the state FBLA and Knowledge Bowl competitions this spring.

“Noble has told us anything we need to let them know,” Robinson said. “They also supported us with uniforms for the volleyball team.”

The school board there also may be looking to the industry to help out with a planned $4 million addition to the school, Robinson said.

Oil companies were the first to help out during last fall’s floods in south and central Weld County. They also donated money to local school districts to change their school bus fleets to natural gas.

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY

Fort Lupton officials have seen the industry’s lingering effects on a sleepy town, and welcome them.

For the most part, many residents have grown used to the effects of an industry that will be a neighbor for years to come.

“I look at it positively,” said Bashor of Grover, who receives a mineral rights royalties check every month. “Anytime someone puts money in your pocket, that’s positive. The worst negative is the roads, but as far as the people, I don’t see a negative to the people.”

Added Lambert in New Raymer: “We used to have a quiet, small little country town. Now we have a loud, small little country town.”

“Any time you deal with growth and anything like that, you’ll deal with the ugly side. — Cyle Lambert, owner of Pawnee Station restaurant in New Raymer